The Shipping Container

I was determined to bring a shipping container to the Island with us, posing to Debbie that we could pack it full to the brim with anything we wanted, one box to fill up, one box to empty out. Debbie was thinking of mailing down the materials, our small kitchen appliances, my power tools; both electrical and woodworking. I was thinking of trips to the Post Office, packing and unpacking the items on both ends of this journey, and thrift! I won the battle, but Debbie soon realized that of course we should fill a container, pack it to the timbers, send it down to Florida for shipment to this Island, are we crazy? Don't ask!
Then we went to work on the logistics of accomplishing this feat, afterall I thought, what do I know about shipping containers? Answer, Not Much! So began the research for the 20' X 8' X 8.5' foot box that looks just like a commercial trailer you see on the interstates every day, but ours was without the chassis and the wheels.
Picture, if you can, a wicked heavy corrugated steel box, with plywood decking on the interior floor, and not much else, O.K. it was painted grey, just like a U.S. Navy Ship. I think it weighed 4,800 pounds empty and I learned later that it weighed 35,000 pounds, 17.5 tons, when we had it filled. From the photos you can see the albatross as we set it on a chassis, with a 40 ton crane; bound for Tropical Shipping's main offices, in the Port of West Palm Beach, Florida.
What size container, how do I purchase one and have it delivered to Harwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and these were the easy questions. I went to the world wide web (where else?) for answers. First off, according to the helpful (I hold tongue in cheek) folks at Tropical Shipping the container must be seaworthy. Seaworthy, does that mean it has to float? I started to think about how one could seal a shipping container, despite it's weight and minimal weather stripping; never mind lacking a door seal like a submarine has on it's own main hatch, and make it FLOAT? I do not know with any certainty the formula for gross tonnage vs surface area of the floating but I was pretty certain that it couldn't be done.
Anyway, as I deduced from several phone conversations, we needed a container which had a recent inspection and certification for shipping by ocean going vessel, like a container ship. There actually are companies in the shipping industry whose only job it performs are inspections for certifying these containers for sea duty! Now, where to purchase one of these steel brutes, inspected - or at worst - inspect-able!
I tried eBay and found several companies that could bring one to me, including one in Eastham, a small village to the North of Harwich, on the Lower Cape. Looking all over the East coast for a big steel box and I end up finding what I need practically next door. The 20 foot container was inspected for sea, in the Port of Newark, New Jersey, and the inspecting company put a sticker on the back door of the container for all to see. The sticker, which was punched out, almost like the old car battery warranty stickers and affixed to the battery itself, and, in both instances designating how long the covered period extended by the month and year punched therein.
I din't mention that Tropical Shipping could have sent a 20 foot container, on a chassis, to Harwich, let us fill it up and they would return to West Palm Beach with our container, one shot, no muss no fuss. I thought it sounded great! Problem was, Tropical Shipping allowed us an hour and a half to fill the container, with all of our stuff, so that the driver could turn right around and head South. The other option was a six hour holdover for an additional $800.00, no relief there! We pay them close to $6,000.00 to get our stuff to St. Croix, and, when it arrives, we have to empty it, in front of Customs Agents, practically at the Container Port Dock! Then transfer the items to some place for storage, until we needed them, storage space isn't cheap, so this wasn't a very good option for us.
We made the decision to purchase, since we could have the box in the driveway in Harwich for 2 or 3 weeks, to load up and secure for the trip. When it gets to St. Croix, I contacted a company that would deliver it to our property for $175.00, from the customs man, without unloading it and reloading it (we hoped) in St. Croix. Once on our property, we could unload it as we saw the need for the items within.
Meanwhile, in Harwich, to fill this big grey corrugated steel box without wheels, we made the decision to purchase the kitchen cabinets from Home Depot, and the exterior doors and windows from Willmington Builders Supply, in, where else, Willmington, Massachusetts. These two building components along with all of my woodworking tools, new and used items from the Cape Cod home we own, plus tool manuals, cookbooks, clothing, sheets, lawn furniture, file cabinet, PC, PC desk, and the list goes on.
It took me all of three weeks, packing up my tools, milling some lumber I got from a friend, for use in making our hurricane storm shutters, mil, mill, mill....packing, packing, packing. Debbie and I worked nonstop for most of that period, into the container, out of the container, work, work, work.
Packed and ready for pick up, we get a call from Tropical Shipping, they are sending up the container, are we ready, and can I give them directions......... Oh boy, somebody got it wrong, what do you mean you don't need the container, we don't have chassis after chassis laying around down here you know! After several hours, and an admittance on my part that they could take an extra day and get the chassis here, without the steel box, on the 28th and not the 27th of October, as originally planned. Debbie, you see, in her infinite wisdom, scheduled the pick up, purposely giving us an extra day, just in the event that.......
As scheduled, or rather rescheduled, the lifting crane arrived and set up their equipment, and amazingly enough, the driver, chassis in-tow, called from his cell phone that he was nearby and would arrive immediately. He pulled in with the tractor and chassis and the crane operator already had our container off the ground and ready to transfer. The driver spoke with the operator of the crane, who then threw me the halyard, connected to the container for me to assist in persuading this brute into position for touch-down on chassis. All went perfectly as the container left Harwich, heading off-Cape and South to the Sunshine State and transport to our Island and, eventually, our building site.... More later............